Canada's Greenest Employers (2025) - Flipbook - Page 82
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CANADA'S GREENEST EMPLOYERS (2025)
Unilever’s sustainability efforts have deep roots
B
ruce Bugden is happy
that Canada moved
from plastic grocery
bags to reusable ones
— but now, he says
with a laugh, everyone has more
reusable bags than they can use.
So, Bugden and other members of
the Sustainable Living Team, an
employee resource group (ERG) at
Unilever Canada, came up with a
creative solution: bins at the
company store in Unilever’s
Toronto head office now invite
employees to take a bag if they
need one or leave one if they
don’t.
with raffle giveaways of sustainable products, trash cleanups at
parks and beaches, and clothes
donation drives around the
holidays. The group also made the
Toronto office plastic cutlery-free.
“It’s rewarding, because you feel
like you’re making an impact on
others — even that little impact of
thinking about, ‘should this go in
the recycling bin or the garbage?’
or ‘maybe I won’t buy this product
because of the wrapper it’s using.’”
Unilever itself has long been
committed to sustainability and
made it a core part of its business
strategy and growth plans, says
Catherine McVitty, sustainable
business manager. The Canadian
division of the multinational
consumer packaged goods
company has four major
sustainability goals: to achieve
net-zero emissions, create resilient
and regenerative natural and
agricultural ecosystems, end
plastic pollution, and ensure a
decent livelihood and living wage
across its value chain. McVitty
says she appreciates the company’s
rigour in not only setting
ambitious goals but mapping out
realistic plans to achieve them.
“We have something called a
climate transition action plan, of
how we’re going to get to the
I admire that regardless
of what’s going on in
terms of public sentiment,
Unilever has stuck to its
sustainability priorities,
knowing that over the long
term, it makes us a more
resilient company.
— Catherine McVitty
Sustainable Business Manager
“It’s working really well,” says
Bugden, who is a customer
business development manager at
Unilever. “You can get rid of some
bags, and we don’t have to
produce more bags for the store.”
The Sustainable Living Team,
led by Bugden, is one of Unilever’s
most active ERGs. Its members put
on events and initiatives aimed at
making a positive impact on the
planet and educating colleagues
about how they can do the same.
Events have included lunch and
learns on environmental topics
Employees at Unilever Canada take part in a green area clean up.
net-zero target, with interim
targets along the way, and it has
looked at everything from
sourcing raw materials to how we
distribute them to how consumers
use our products, and made sure
we created a plan that’s achievable,” she says. “I’m proud of the
level of science and research that
goes into all of our sustainability
goals.”
McVitty joined Unilever in 1992
in a role that involved working
with local environmental
organizations to get their input on
the company’s sustainability
strategy — leaving an early career
in politics for a private-sector job
